[Job-Discussions] Call for Action: Accessible Typing Test

[Rob Hudson]

During these times of increased work from home job availability, one important barrier has become evident for the blind job seeker attempting to find employment in the work from home arena of customer service, data entry, and similar fields. This is the humble typing test. Many of us have excellent typing skills, but are faced with problems trying to prove it.
Employers want to test their potential hirees' typing skills. So they send them to places like typingtest.com or other such sites. However, while there is text visible to us on the screen, we cannot read it, arrow down to the edit field, type it, and then arrow back up to continue where we left off. This slows down the typing speed dramatically. One way to possibly do it is to turn off keyboard interruptibility in your screen reader, set it to read from the top of the page, and then type as it reads. This produces some ok results, sometimes, but it's still not an ideal method. There's no telling, for example, how much top matter appears before the text you are supposed to type.
Then, there are the typing tests that are images of text you are supposed to type, similar to CAPTCHAs. I do not believe I need to go into the problems with these sites.
We need an alternative.
I suggest we find an HTML5 or JavaScript developer to build an accessible online typing test platform. This would be a self-voicing web application that reads text and also times the user according to time limits set within the program. There could be a button that says: "One minute test" or "Two Minute Test" or similar. It could also have tabs for things like data entry, where you are given items like first name, last name, street address and so on in tabbable fields. There are, indeed, specific tests for data entry jobs, so I didn't come up with this myself. Once the user has taken the test, they can then take a screen shot of the results page and send on to the employer. No more Aira. No more Be My Eyes. No more bugging family members or neighbors to help complete a simple typing test.
There are self-voicing typing tutor apps such as the one from American Printing House, but no actual typing tests. Why this was not included in those apps, I do not know.
Specific funding for such a project could be gotten through platforms like kickstart or patreon. I believe this would be a good project for some eager marketer to get into their teeth. There is no reason why something as simple as a typing test needs to have sighted help to complete, and no reason why it should keep us from gaining that job we want. Help spread the word.  We should all be championing the right to drop barriers for employment, and employment testing. This needs to happen.